FOR years Mario Kart has ruled the roost at the best multiplayer racing game on the market but the arrival of ModNation Racers presents the established champ with a proper challenge.
Taking its cue from Little Big Planet, ModNation Racers tried something new by giving you the chance to customise nearly all aspects of your racing experience and share them with the online community.
The actual racing is fantastic. Utilising a simple slide mechanic where one press of the X button puts your kart into a drift, you can then manoeuvre easily from side to side, all the while building up a special boost meter, which can be used for an extra blast of speed when required.
As with Mario Kart there are plenty of weapons available to pick up on your way round the tracks, adding enough spice to the proceedings to make sure races are never dull.
That said, like Mario Kart there can still be an immense frustration when you come round the final corner in first place only to be blasted off the road, leaving you to trail your way over the line with all your good work wasted.
The multi-player races are great frenetic fun, be it online or against a friend at home. The game is obviously designed for the multi-player experience but there’s still enough to keep you occupied in the one player element, be it the races of plethora of options to design your own tracks, karts and characters.
The customisation options are not only extensive, they are nearly endless. As said before you can build your own character, kart and tracks, and then place them all online to challenge other gamers and their creations from around the globe.
This proved a massive success with Little Big Planet and ModNation Racers uses the same idea to maximum benefit, giving the game far more mileage than the Nintendo stalwart. It seems like the way the industry is going and that’s no bad thing, allowing individual game users the ability to customise and effectively make their own gaming experience.
Visually ModNation Racers is fantastic with the mix of bold colours and detailed environments blending well with the character models.
One unavoidable problem is the truly staggering load times involved in the game. Genuinely it has been a long time since I came across a game that makes you wait so long to play. It’s not a deal breaker but still it is infuriating as you sit and stare at screen after screen waiting for the brief, albeit extremely entertaining racing.
That and the lengthy installation time are the only drawbacks with what has to be one of the most entertaining multi-player titles on the system.
It’s not Call of Duty but then if you after something more light hearted (that doesn’t involve getting shot by abuse-shouting eight-year-old Americans) this is perfect, and anyone who enjoyed their time on Mario Kart (isn’t that most of us...) should certainly check it out.
4/5